March 30, 2012
Final Stats
As the schedule gets closer to the 2012 Atlantic 10 Men's Tennis championship, Fordham head coach Cory Hubbard has stepped up the competition for the Rams, traveling down to Washington, D.C., to face Charlotte, a team that finished fifth at last year's championship, today. The Rams gave the 49ers a run for their money but came up short, falling 7-0.
The match started with Charlotte taking the doubles point, winning two of the three doubles matches. Jack Williams and Alex Calott defeated Fordham's Kuba Kowalski and Mischa Koran at first doubles, 8-2, while Kamil Khalil and Krzyszt Kwasniewicz took third doubles from Fordham's Peder Gram and J.J. Tauil, 8-4. Srikar Alla and Max Peara picked up the Fordham doubles win with an 8-3 decision over Paul Cisti and Anthony Davison.
In singles play, after a slow start for the Rams, Fordham forced four of the six matches to a third set. The 49ers took the first two singles matches in straight sets as Cisti defeated Tauil, 6-3, 6-1, at fourth singles and Khalil bested Alla, 6-1, 6-1, at the second position.
The other four matches were stretched to a third set, with three of the four going to an extra game in the third set, as Kowalski dropped the first set to Williams, 6-2, before coming back to take the second, 6-2, forcing a third set. But Williams pulled out a 6-3 win in the third set for the win.
At fifth singles, Peara won the first set from Davison, 6-2, but lost the second, 6-2, and the third, 7-5, as Charlotte clinched the win.
Jan Krouham dropped the first set to Nate Shanok, 6-3, at sixth singles, before taking the second, 6-3. But Krouham came up short in the third set, 7-5. Koran had the same experience at second singles, falling to Calott, 6-2, before winning the second, 6-4, but falling in the third, 7-5.
"Today's match was much closer than the final score indicated," said Hubbard. "I'm so proud of the way our team continued to fight after being down 1-0 and losing five first sets. We did not play that well in the beginning and really dug a big hole. But after about two hours of getting beat, we were able to hang in and turn the momentum around get the last four matches into third sets with a chance to win. We never quit or lost the belief that we could battle back and win, so I extremely happy with the tenacity and relentless effort and energy we played with. The positive is we have had chances and been in position to win every conference match. So we are making a statement to the conference that is no longer the same Fordham program, and we are earning respect and have changed the reputation and perception of our team. If we can stay positive and keep the same effort and belief, the results will start to come."
The Rams will continue play at the George Washington University Round Robin on Saturday as they face the host school at 2:00 p.m.
